Feeding FAQ: 6-9 months – Other

My 6.2 month baby always seems to wake with a dirty nappy and is tired after naps

My baby wakes up from all his sleeps with a dirty nappy. I don’t know if this wakes him but I suspect it does. He is now waking at 5.30/6am with a dirty nappy too. As a result I have to feed him and then he is tired. I put him back to bed and he sleeps until 8am when I wake him. I then put him down again at 9/9.30 for half an hour to get back on track although he is still tired. He goes down again at 12.30 and will sleep until 2, but again will be tired and with a dirty nappy when he wakes up. He refuses to go back to sleep late afternoon and then goes to sleep exhausted at 7pm. He is sharing with his two year old brother and has started waking him in the mornings now.
He feeds at 6/7am from both sides, breakfast at 8am, which is weetabix with fruit or mashed banana mixed with fruit puree. He takes a small feed at 10.30am from one side only. I am trying to drop this. Lunch is at 12 (5-10 cubes of puree). I have just had introduced protein, which he is happy with. He has something such as chicken and sweet potato. He takes some fruit puree as dessert. He feeds from both sides at 2.30pm. Dinner at 5.30pm is vegetable puree such as parsnip and pumpkin 5-8 cubes. If he is very tired he is given a small breast feed first. His final breast feed is at 6.30pm of both sides ifhe has had no milk at 5.30pm and only one side if he had milk before solids. He was weaned at 5 months 1 week and now is 6 months 2 weeks old and weighs 20lbs.
He may be allergic to dairy products so is given soya milk to drink on the odd occasions when he has a bottle. He will take 5-6 ozs. I have also eliminated dairy products from my diet.

Some babies have digestive systems which are more sensitive to fruit and vegetables than others. As your son is having quite a bit of solid food now but still a great part of it made from fruit and vegetables, changing his diet a little, may help him have slightly less dirty nappies which seem to cause him to wake
Offer Ready Brek at breakfast which is oat rather than wheat based. Use a small amount of puree such as pear or peach with it which are gentler than apple. If you wish to use apple, then mix that with banana which can sometimes be hard to digest.
Use sweet or ordinary potato at lunch with his chicken and follow with a soya yoghurt to which you have added a very small amount of fruit puree to flavour. Also begin to offer other protein at this time such as fish.
Balance his vegetables with a carbohydrate at dinnertime and see if it will help him not wake with a dirty nappy in the mornings. Begin to offer vegetable and pasta bakes, lentils and thick soups rather than just vegetable puree.
As your son weaned after 5 months and is a good weight, he may well be hungry if he wakes early until he is taking a more varied diet. You could try using a split feed with half his solids at 5pm before he is too tired, a bath at 6pm followed by his full milk feed and then the rest of his solids to see if he sleeps longer in the morning. When weaning later you do have to speed up the introduction of new foods to provide enough for your sons needs, now that he is over 6 months. Have a look in The Complete Weaning Guide for recipes and guidelines on introducing a balanced diet for a 6-month-old baby. Also have a look at the case study in The Complete Sleep Guide p120 about a baby who woke with a dirty nappy at night. It will help you to see how getting the balance of foods right can help a baby’s digestive system.